Book Choice - February 2018

This happy hour Andrew Marjoribanks, Wordsworth Books gives a bundle of the best in fiction and non-fiction. Melvyn Minnaar chats to Rehana Rossouw about New Times with her exquisite verve and trademark attention to language. Beverley Roos Muller maintains that (Sir) Salman Rushdie’s new novel The Golden House is one of Rushdie’s greatest works, a marvellous literary accomplishment. Vanessa Levenstein suggests that “Waiting for Godot” is Samuel Beckett’s timeless masterpiece, brought to life in Jo Baker’s A Country Road, a tree . Peter Soal lingered long over Dare Not Linger: The Presidential Years by Nelson Mandela and Mandla Langa. Sheila Chisholm is kept on her toes by My Dancing Life: Spanish and Ballet Across Three Continents, Marina Gruit’s frank and funny autobiography. Phillippa Cheifitz slips into the kitchen with Butter & Love Boerekow by Anna Carolina Albert, and Curry – Stories and Recipes from across South Africa by Ishay Govender-Ypma. Mike Fitzjames, cruel as ever, stiffens our spines with three gripping thrillers. Cindy Moritz sings the praises of Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Unburied, Sing – which brings the archetypal road trip into 21st century America.